Fielding former MP D Kupendra Reddy as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka, Janata Dal-Secular on Tuesday claimed that Congress national president Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders had consented to support him.
Expressing surprise over Congress fielding a second candidate 'all of a sudden', senior JD-S leader and former Minister H D Revanna requested the national party for support to keep the 'communal forces' out of the race.
"Sonia Gandhi on Friday spoke to Deve Gowda (JD-S patriarch), following her consent we have fielded our party candidate today. In the same way H D Kumaraswamy (JD-S leader) has spoken to K C Venugopal (Congress General Secretary) stating that JD-S may fall short of a few votes and requested for support, after they agreed we have fielded the candidate," Revanna said.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Gowda's elder son said Kupendra Reddy himself had met state Congress president D K Shivakumar, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha M Mallikarjun Kharge, and other Congress leaders like R V Deshpande, B K Hariprasad and Ramalinga Reddy seeking support.
"He (Kupendra Reddy) also wanted to meet Siddaramaiah and had sought his appointment....but don't know what happened, in a sudden development they (Congress) have fielded second candidate, despite not having numbers to win the seat," he said, adding that Congress leaders had not expressed any intention to field second candidate.
A candidate needs 45 votes to win, and based on their strength in the Legislative Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party can win two seats and the Congress one, in the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls for four seats.
Despite not having adequate number of votes to win the fourth Rajya Sabha seat from the state assembly, all the three political parties in the state -- BJP, Congress and JD-S -- have fielded candidates for the seat, forcing an election.
In an unexpected move, the Congress on Monday fielded its state general secretary Mansoor Ali Khan as a second candidate; following this, the ruling BJP on Monday night announced the candidature of outgoing MLC Lehar Singh Siroya as its third candidate for the polls.
The Congress has to cooperate with the JD-S if it really wants to keep the 'communal forces' away from the race, Revanna said, as he requested Sonia Gandhi, Venugopal, Kharge, Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and other party leaders for support.
"We all should together try to keep communal forces away. The decision is left for them (Congress). There is a couple of days' time (for withdrawal of candidature), let's wait and see," he said.
Revanna made it clear that Congress did not seek JD-S' support for its second candidate.
He also claimed that some Congress leaders had threatened not to vote in support of JD-S if it fielded a candidate from a minority community. '...will reveal it when time comes.'
JD-S state president C M Ibrahim too said, Gowda had spoken to Sonia Gandhi before deciding to field candidates.
"Before fielding candidate Deve Gowda spoke to Sonia Gandhi. Kupendra Reddy spoke to Kharge, after their consent, candidate was fielded. They (Congress) told us to field candidate and they will support....but now by fielding second candidate, their plan may be to help BJP," he alleged.
After electing two Rajya Sabha candidates (Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and actor-politician Jaggesh) based on its own strength in the Assembly, the BJP will be left with an additional 29 votes.
The Congress will be left with 24 extra votes after electing Jairam Ramesh, while the JD-S has only 32 votes, which is not sufficient to win a seat.
